


Scones and Stone Circles

by TheseusInTheMaze



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/F, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Food, Melancholy, Pining, bed sharing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-09
Updated: 2020-08-09
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:35:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25232500
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheseusInTheMaze/pseuds/TheseusInTheMaze
Summary: Bill's plans on a Doctor free holiday are derailed when a lady in a blue coat runs by.
Relationships: Thirteenth Doctor/Bill Potts
Comments: 10
Kudos: 70
Collections: Every Woman 2020





	Scones and Stone Circles

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Melacka](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Melacka/gifts).



> I had so much fun writing this one. I hope you enjoy it!

Bill Potts was walking through a small town in Yorkshire with her hands in her pockets, trying to figure out what she wanted to do with her day, when someone ran by her very fast, their light blue coat streaming behind them like the tail of a comet. Their boots were very loud on the cobblestones, and their hair was bright enough to catch the light. 

_Well_ , thought Bill, pausing to watch, _that was weird._ She heard some people running in the distance - possibly chasing the person? There was shouting, and she shook her head. Even on an explicitly Doctor-free vacation, she was still running into Doctor-y situations, it seemed. 

And then the person running skidded to a stop, turned around, and ran over to Bill, seizing her in a big hug. "Bill!"

"Oi!" Bill wriggled, trying to get free. "I don't know you!" _Wouldn't mind getting to know you, though_ , she thought, as she took stock of the soft curves and bright blond hair. 

"Oh," said the person, and they pulled away. It was a woman, with hazel eyes and a button nose. "Sorry 'bout that. Sometimes get all mixed up over which face is which."

Bill frowned. Only one person she knew talked that strangely. "Doctor?" She hazarded. 

The woman smiled broadly, and then she looked wildly over her shoulder, as the shouting got louder. "Oh, it's always at the most inconvenient times," she complained, and then she was grabbing Bill by the hand and running.

Bill ran with her, although she complained as she did so. As much as she could, as she tried to catch her breath.

"I came on... this holiday... to take a... _break_ ," she gasped, as they skidded around a corner and hid in an alleyway. "What... is going... on?!"

"Sorry 'bout that," said the Doctor, and then she pulled Bill deeper into the alley. "Bit of a spot of bother. Probably shouldn't be crossing the timelines like this, come to think of it, but couldn't resist saying hi!" She was shrugging out of her coat, folding it up and putting it behind a rubbish bin. "They shouldn't recognize me without that, right? I know that it was all a bit of blundering around, since they saw me running away and then I just kinda -"

"You can wear my coat," Bill said, thinking fast. She unbuttoned her red pea coat, and she handed it to the Doctor, then shivered, rubbing her hands over her arms. "Cor, it ain't half cold."

The Doctor shrugged into the coat, as the sound of running feet coming towards them got louder. Then the Doctor pushed Bill into the wall of the alley (ew!) and _kissed_ her. It was exactly what kissing the Doctor would be like, although Bill hadn't ever put much thought into kissing the Doctor, for obvious reasons. But the Doctor kissed with the kind of frenzied intensity that Bill had always seen radiating off of her friend, and Bill wasn't thinking as she kissed the Doctor back, her hands buried in the Doctor's hair. She was pulling _all_ the stops, and it was a little bit like being in a movie.

The Doctor sighed, and she seemed to be melting into the kiss. There was the sound of the running pausing, and Bill pulled back, to shoot an affronted look at the man at the front of the group, who was frowning. 

"Can I help you, mate?" Bill pulled the Doctor a little closer to her, and the Doctor... was clinging to her. Full on _clinging_ , and wearing a nervy expression. It didn't sit well on the Doctor's face - even this new face. 

"Have you seen a short man in a blue coat running by?" The man was out of breath. 

The Doctor pressed a little closer. She had her fingers hooked in the belt loops of Bill's jeans, and her face was pressed into Bill's neck, now. In what universe would someone confuse _her_ for a man? 

(It was weird, them being almost the exact same height, but Bill wasn't going to focus on that right now.) 

"Ain't seen any men, no," said Bill. She cuddled the Doctor a little closer to her. "D'you mind? Me and my girlfriend -"

"Are you sure that's your girlfriend?" The man took a step closer, and he was frowning. "I could swear she looks like the man who was snooping around our... investigation."

"I'm pretty sure I'd know if she was my girlfriend," Bill snapped, and she drew herself up. "It's not like someone could just turn into someone else." 

The Doctor's shoulders were beginning to shake, and she was panting into Bill's neck. It was honestly pretty ticklish, and Bill had to work hard to keep her expression stoic. 

"We're performing a very important investigation on a possible extraterrestrial crash site -" began the man. 

"That sounds pretty scifi," said Bill. "What next, you gonna check if we've got lizards in our brains or something?" The Doctor made an aborted choking noise, and Bill drew her closer. "You're making my girlfriend cry. Why are you making my girlfriend cry?"

The man couldn't stand up against the onslaught. Greater men than he had tried and failed. 

"Sorry," he mumbled, and then he was off, his buddies behind him. One of the buddies gave them a long look, and Bill glared at him until he flushed, and scurried after the man in front.

"Sorry, Bill," said the Doctor. She pulled away, looking slightly ruffled but otherwise unbothered. "Was thinking on my feet."

"Those weren't your _feet_ ," Bill said, and now that they were out of danger the enormity of what had just happened seemed to drop on her head. 

"I wanted to make them go away," the Doctor said earnestly, "and I know humans around this time always feel awkward around other people being intimate." She frowned, picking her coat up and dusting it off. "I probably shouldn't be parading around in this thing, should I?" 

"Probably not, if that's what they're using to identify you," said Bill. "So why are you here. As... you, versus as the you that I know?" She paused. "Tell you what, this is gonna do my head in, there being multiple yous."

"Is it the woman thing? Seems to be what trips most folks up." The Doctor put her hands into the pockets of the coat, and then withdrew them, her expression delighted. "You've got taffy in here!" She began to unwrap a candy.

"Nah, the woman thing isn't too weird," said Bill. "Or at least... it isn't weirder than the... rest of it." She searched the Doctor's face, looking for traces of her friend. She could see bits of him, here and there, but she wouldn't have been able to explain _how_ , or what it was specifically. 

"So... where in your timeline are we? Specifically?" The Doctor rocked on her heels, and she looked vaguely uncomfortable. _Must be complicated, keeping all these timelines in the right direction_ , Bill thought. 

"Um," said Bill. "Well. We just, uh, we just dealt with the Monks." She made a face. "Me and my mate Angie, we were gonna go on holiday to a nice, middle of nowhere place so I didn't have to think about... all of that." She made a vague hand motion. "Not that she knew about it, obviously, but she said I looked stressed and there was a break coming up since they're gonna be doing construction on the school -"

"Right, right," said the Doctor, nodding. "So where am I? I mean... other me, obviously."

"I told you - him?" Bill frowned. "I told the Professor," she said after a moment, "that I wanted to have a normal human holiday, and do normal human holiday things." 

"Where's Angie?" The Doctor looked around. "Did I just break in on a date again?"

"No," said Bill. "Angie isn't into girls like that, first, and second, she's ended up breaking her ankle falling off of a skateboard, so she couldn't come. So it's just been... me." She made a vague hand gesture, and then she shivered again. It was still early spring, and chilly enough that she was regretting going coatless. 

"Oh," said the Doctor. "So travelin' alone."

"Yep," said Bill.

There was an awkward beat. 

"Want some company?" The Doctor asked. 

"Sure, if you're offering," said Bill. 

"I also should probably stick around a bit longer," said the Doctor. "I think that bloke might have started to suspect somethin'. Might do good to pretend to be a cute vacationing couple or something similar."

"Ah," said Bill. She wasn't entirely sure why that was making something in her stomach flutter like it was full of butterflies, but she wasn't going to look too hard at that just yet. 

"If that's okay," the Doctor added. "Just because, y'know, the two of us were playing at that so I figure -"

"It's cool," said Bill, and she took the Doctor's hand, lacing their fingers together. "Let's go, babe," she said, and she gave a cheeky grin. Hopefully, it went all the way up to her eyes.

* * *

"So we talked about what _I'm_ doing here," Bill said, half an hour later, "but what are _you_ doing here? Am I here with you, somewhere?"

"No, you're not," said the Doctor. "Can't tell you more than that, I'm afraid."

"Because of timestreams and stuff like that, right?" Bill squeezed the Doctor's hand, as they walked to the edge of town. 

They had stopped by the little bed and breakfast that Bill was staying in (the doddery old woman who ran the place didn't seem surprised that Bill had brought a friend, at least). They dumped the Doctor's coat in Bill’s room, and Bill hadl pulled on her own sweater, since the Doctor seemed to have taken claim of her coat. 

"Something like that," the Doctor agreed. 

"But that doesn't answer my question about why you're _here_ ," said Bill. 

The Doctor swung their joined hands, and she indicated the stone circle they were now slowly meandering towards. "This is an old crash site," she told Bill. "Couple of thousand years ago, a Weri'wejan ship landed, but something broke, and they weren't able to get back. They ended up hitchhiking - well, not actual hitchhiking, but y'know what I mean - to get back, and the locals buried it and put a whole bunch of rocks around the edges of the site, to warn people to back off."

"Is it dangerous?" Not that Bill was _worried_ about a spaceship from who knew how long ago, but... well, it didn't hurt to be careful, when she remembered to do so.

(She didn't always remember, was the problem.) 

"Nah," said the Doctor. "Anything that might've been dangerous died off a long time ago. Did a bit of a scan. It's all just inert metal, buried under all that." She made an expansive hand gesture at the wide, flat space, with the stones spaced across it. 

"So why were you running from that lot?" Bill gestured vaguely over her shoulder, towards the town.

"Bunch of investor types," the Doctor said, wrinkling her nose. "The metal and other spaceship components are pretty harmless on their own, but I don't want to think about what that lot might do. They were a weapons company, going on about new ways to exploit alien technology." The two of them were almost at the stone circle now. 

"So what'd ya do to 'em?" 

"Just sabotaged their equipment. Misreading everything, so they think it's just a load of old tin cans and the like." The Doctor wrinkled her nose. "Although they caught me doin' it, and they've been following us around."

"What, now?" Bill glanced over her shoulder - sure enough, there was a man walking behind them, far enough to be out of earshot, but still noticeable in his khakis against the green of the grass. "Huh."

"So we just need to... keep up the act," the Doctor said. "Just so that they don't suspect anything." She squeezed Bill's hand again, looking over at Bill, and Bill tried to ignore the way her heart sped up.

"Not a problem," Bill said, and her mouth was only a little bit dry. It was because of the cold air, obviously. No other reason.

"I haven't been on holiday in _ages_ ," the Doctor said, as enthusiastically. "I love me a good stone circle. Especially when there's a spaceship under it."

"Hang on," Bill said. "A spaceship is under all of this? Like, it came here way back when?" 

"The Earth has been gettin' visited by spaceships since it formed, pretty much," said the Doctor. "It ain't exactly a recent thing."

"Well, yeah, but what was there to do, back in the day?" Bill let go of the Doctor's hands to stuff her hands in the pockets of her overalls. She was still chilly, and the sweater wasn't as warm as her red pea coat, which the Doctor looked entirely too cute in. 

Oh god, it was _odd_ to be having butterflies and fancies about the Doctor of all people. Although she was a surprisingly good kisser. Then again, as old as the Doctor was, it was a little hard to imagine her _not_ being a good kisser, even if she didn't do it that often. It was hard to imagine this particular Doctor being that old - the Doctor that Bill usually travelled with certainly looked the part, with his craggy face. But this Doctor looked... well, she looked like someone's mum. Maybe. 

"Do I have something on my face?" The Doctor frowned, and Bill started - she'd been staring, hadn't she?

"Nah, sorry," said Bill. "Was off with the fairies." She cleared her throat. "Although maybe I shouldn't say that around here. Might get carried off by 'em." She gave a nervous laugh, and then she realized how awkward she sounded, and she rocked on her heels. "This is the part where you're supposed to tell me that there's no such thing as fairies," she added. 

The Doctor grinned at her, and there was mischief in the back of her eyes. "Wouldn't wanna ruin all the mysteries of the universe, would I?" she asked cheerfully, then; "oo, look, spirals! Love a rock with spirals!"

_She's got to be joking_ , Bill thought, then; _why don't her trousers go all the way down? Aren't her ankles cold?_

"Something about you humans," the Doctor said, as she leaned forward to squint at one of the rocks in the circle, "really compels you to draw spirals on rocks. I never entirely understood it, but I can't say I don't admire it."

"Spirals are nice," Bill said. Her mouth was running on autopilot, and her eyes were glued to the seat of the Doctor's trousers. They were pulled tight, and the coat was rising up. Bill could make out the muscles of her calves, the elegant curve of her bum, the line of her back. She licked her lips, and she shivered. 

_I don't know if I'm grateful for her being a woman now, or if it makes it weirder_ , Bill thought. _I guess the trend of me and alien girls continues._

"Tell y'what, I'm _starving_ ," the Doctor said. "Let's go to a tea room. Can't be a proper holiday in a little village without goin' to a tea room!" 

"You have a lot of thoughts on these sorts of things, do ya?" Bill teased. "Then again, I suppose you're always on some sort of holiday, aren't you? So you must have a checklist on how to do it right, at this point." 

"I don't believe in checklists for holidays," the Doctor said, and then she grabbed Bill's hand again. "I believe in seizing the day for holidays, and doing it as much as possible!"

"I can get behind that," Bill agreed, as the Doctor began to pull her back towards the town.

* * *

The Doctor sat in the tea room, Bill's coat draped over the back of her chair, and she talked very fast and very excitedly about the history of clotted cream and one galaxy where they used tea as an antihistamine. 

" - so I told 'em that on Earth, everyone 'n their mum drinks tea, and they said that you lot must have horrible allergies." The Doctor paused for breath, and took a bite of a scone. "What?"

"What what?" Bill blushed, looked down at her own plate. It had a scone, covered in raspberry jam.

"You've been staring at me like I've got two heads," said the Doctor, and then she made a face. "Never doin' _that_ again." 

"No way did you have two heads," said Bill. She took a bite of her scone, and a bit of raspberry jam dribbled down her chin. 

The Doctor leaned forward, and she dabbed it off with her thumb, then licked her thumb. "Wouldn't want it to go to waste," she said, and she was grinning.

Bill blushed so hard she fancied she could feel it in the roots of her hair. "S-sorry about that," she mumbled. "I, uh, usually not quite so... messy." 

"Any good meal worth having is worth wearing," said the Doctor.

"Said by someone who doesn't do their own laundry," Bill fired back. 

"I do my own laundry," the Doctor protested. "I put it into the TARDIS washing machine 'n everything!"

"And then the TARDIS puts it back into your drawers," said Bill. "You don't even have to do any folding!"

"Folding is rubbish," the Doctor said. 

Bill raised an eyebrow. 

The Doctor took a bite of her scone. In a just universe, the jam would have dripped down all over her shirt, maybe into her lap. Unfortunately, it was not, so the Doctor managed to look put together and poised, eating a smothered scone. "Apart from folding space," the Doctor added. "Folding space is pretty good."

Bill snorted, but she couldn't really be mad at the Doctor, when the other woman looked so pleased with herself. 

She very firmly ignored the butterflies that took flight in her stomach, when the Doctor took her hand. This was all to throw the weird miner people off of the scent.

(Even if Bill couldn't see anyone else in the empty tea room, it was the principle, right?) 

* * *

The rest of the day was downright _picturesque_. They went to a used book shop run by an old man who had eyebrows that you could lose a small bird in, and the Doctor bought two books of poetry and an old star map. 

(Bill discovered a weird book from her childhood involving a witch turned into a cat, and there was magic silver polish and giant ants, and it was just as weird as she had imagined it.)

The two of them sat under a tree, reading - the Doctor would read a bit of poetry occasionally, or Bill would try to make sense of the plot of her book. It was the kind of quiet that she associated with her Doctor (was it weird to think of him as _her_ Doctor?), only different, because this Doctor would put her head in Bill's lap. 

The shadows played across their books, as the day warmed up, and Bill eventually took her sweater off. She caught the Doctor looking at her with a hard to read expression, and she laughed, self conscious. "Is there something on my face?"

"No," the Doctor said, and she cleared her throat. "No, nothing. Sorry. It's just... it's good to see you."

"Do you not see me much, in the future?" Bill slid her fingers through the Doctor's hair, keeping it gentle. The Doctor's skin was cooler than a human's, but her scalp was still warm. She wriggled, just a little bit, at the coolness of Bill's fingers. 

"I can't tell you that," the Doctor said, and there was a sad note to her voice. She let the book rest on her chest, open, and she took Bill's hand in her own, kissing the palm of it. "Can I stay with you tonight?"

"Like... stay-stay?" It felt a bit like Bill's brain was short circuiting, and it really was a good thing the Doctor's ear was pressed into her _stomach_ and not her chest, or else the frantic beating of her heart might have given her away.

"Yeah, just camp out in your room for the night," the Doctor said. "To convince 'em. They'll be gone by tomorrow, but I just wanna make it clear, so they quit it with their suspicions." 

"Of course," Bill said. "You're always welcome." She paused. "Although when you're your other self, you can sleep in the bathtub." _Wait, shit, is that implying too much? Is she going to take that as a come on?_

"Last time I slept in a bathtub, I ended up paddling down the Delaware river," the Doctor said, and her tone was getting dreamy. "Not that time with Washington," the Doctor added, catching Bill's expression. "I wasn't actually there for that." 

Bill snorted. "I think that half the time you make this stuff up, y'know that?" She traced a finger along the Doctor's ear cuff, and the Doctor sighed, some of the tension leaving her shoulders. 

"It keeps you on your toes," she told Bill. "'s'good for ya." She yawned, wide and hard enough that Bill heard her jaw creak. 

"That could _not_ be comfortable," she told the Doctor. 

The Doctor curled up, her face in Bill's belly, and she sighed. She had a face full of denim, from Bill's overalls, but she didn't seem too bothered by it. 

Bill sighed, and she ran her fingers through the Doctor's hair, straightening it out. She couldn't remember the last time she'd had a quiet, restful moment like this, and she was going to savor it, like sweet raspberry jam.

* * *

Bill was woken up by the Doctor shaking her shoulder. It had gotten dim, and it had gotten _cold_. Bill blinked at the Doctor, groggy, and tried to sort out where, exactly, she was. 

"We should go in," the Doctor said. "Gettin' dark." 

Bill sat up, rubbing her eyes. Her head was foggy, and her mouth was dry. "When'd that happen?" She yawned. 

"Passage of time _is_ a thing," the Doctor said, and her tone was teasing. "You just looked so comfy. Didn't want to disturb you."

There was something sad in the backs of the Doctor's eyes, that Bill couldn't entirely parse. She stretched, her arms over her head and her back arching. She was stiff, from lying on the ground, although come to think of it, she didn't remember lying down. And when had the Doctor sat up?

"Have you been sleeping okay?" The Doctor asked, and her expression was faintly worried.

"Yeah," said Bill. "Yeah, just, uh, y'know, I've always slept a little better with someone else nearby." She rubbed the back of her neck.

"So what happened with the lady who got turned into a cat?" the Doctor asked.

"Well," said Bill, "it turned out that she wasn't supposed to eat human food -" 

"Wasn't she a witch?" The Doctor interrupted. She was absently fiddling with the straps of Bill's overalls, adjusting them, then handing Bill her sweater. 

"Witches aren't humans, in this universe," said Bill. "... Maybe. I'm not sure." She pulled her sweater on, which cut back some of the chill. It smelled like it had been in the sun, and a little bit like the grass. 

"It'd be difficult, turning someone into a cat," the Doctor said. She stood up, and she stretched, her hands at the small of her back, her face screwing up. She looked endearingly goofy, and Bill had a feeling her own face was stretching out into a wide grin. 

"Growing all that fur would itch somethin' fierce, yeah," agreed Bill. She stood up as well, putting the book into the pocket of her overalls. The sky was pink, the clouds a deep red, and there was a fog coming in. Everything had a faint dreamlike quality. It seemed only natural to take the Doctor's hand, to lace their fingers together and rub her thumb across the back of the Doctor's hand.

The Doctor made a surprised noise, but then her face broke into a grin. squeezed Bill's fingers. "Good thinkin', in case they're still watching," she told Bill, her tone earnest.

"Right," Bill said, and she smiled herself. It was only a little wistful. 

It wasn't as if anything would _come_ of this. As much as she liked the Doctor - this Doctor, and her Doctor - they weren't even the same species. It was nice to have a sweet memory to hold on to. 

"Yeah," Bill agreed. "Definitely good to, uh, to keep it up."

"I weren't even thinkin' of the fur, honestly," said the Doctor. "More about all the mass." The two of them began to make their way back towards the sparkling lights of the town, away from the tree they had been napping under. 

"Mass?" Bill asked. She swung their hands as they walked in step. The village was quiet, apart from the sound of people's boots on the cobblestones and the quiet murmur of voices. There would be the occasional burst of laughter from the pub, or the sound of teenagers talking very loudly, before it died down. 

"Yeah," said the Doctor. "Your average human, even a smaller human, has a lot more mass than a cat. So you'd have to find somewhere to put it all. Or, I suppose, you could have multiple cats. Although which one would be the original one?"

"It was magic, in that book," Bill said. "There was a magic ring."

"Love me a magic ring," the Doctor agreed, then she paused. "And some supper," she added. "What d'you fancy?"

"Didn't we just have tea?" Bill asked. Her own stomach gave a little growl, and she frowned. Just how long _had_ she been sleeping? 

"Well, yes, but I bet they've got proper Yorkshire puddings," said the Doctor, and she looked excited. "Who doesn't love a nice Yorkshire pudding?" 

"We _are_ in Yorkshire," Bill agreed. "Ain't exactly a better place to get 'em, is there?"

"Exactly," agreed the Doctor. "Let's go!" She began to walk faster, and Bill jogged a little to keep up. 

One thing was for sure; the Doctor was the Doctor, no matter who they (or he, or she) were. 

* * *

They ate supper in the little bed and breakfast that Bill was staying at - beef stew, with roast potatoes, and a trifle for dessert. There was an awkward pause, as Bill got up, and the Doctor followed her up the steps, towards her room. 

"D'you, uh, d’you still want to spend the night?" Bill shoved her hands into her pockets, rocking on her heels. This felt a little bit too much like a one night stand, but also not _enough_ like one.

"Yeah, just to throw 'em off the scent," said the Doctor. She flopped onto the bed, kicking her shoes off. "Y'want the left side or the right?"

"The side I can charge my phone by," Bill said, and she tried not to show how nervous she was. "I'm just gonna, uh, go shower." 

"You do that," the Doctor said. She had shrugged out of her coat, and reached for the television remote, stretching out comfortably. She had a way of making herself completely at home, no matter where she was, it seemed.

Just like the cranky Scottish Doctor. 

It was easier to believe they were the same person, looking at her stretched out like this. 

The Doctor must have felt Bill's gaze, because she looked up, one eyebrow up. "What?"

"Nothin'," Bill said, and she cleared her throat. "Sorry, just thinkin'." 

"Always encourage thinkin'," the Doctor said, and she gave a sunny smile. "Have a good shower!"

"Do my best," Bill agreed, going into the bathroom and closing the door behind her. 

* * *

When Bill came out of the bathroom, the Doctor was taken off her trousers. She was lying on the bed in boxer shorts and a pair of stripey socks. She had her hands behind her head, and she was avidly watching the telly. 

"Anything interesting on?" Bill had brought her pajamas in the bathroom with her, and she dropped her clothes on top of her suitcase. 

"Nature documentary about raccoons," the Doctor said. She scooted over, and Bill flopped onto the bed beside her. "Didja know that Toronto has the most raccoons in one location in the whole world." She paused. "Well, at least until the planet Procyon comes into contact." She stretched, rotating her ankles, and one hand went to Bill's bare arm.

Bill brought her own hand down, and interlaced their fingers. The very tip of her finger traced over the back of the Doctor’s hand. 

"You're all warm from your shower," said the Doctor. She sounded sleepy. 

"Do they have a lot of raccoons on Procyon, then?" Bill asked. She didn't remember the last time she'd been cuddled up to someone in a warm, soft bed like this. She knew this wasn't going to be forever - it probably wasn't even going to last until the morning. But just this moment, she was going to hold on tightly, like a diamond in her palm. 

"Oh yeah," the Doctor said. "Raccoon _people_."

"That is a terrifying thought," Bill said. "Their little hands always terrified me."

"Raccoons are dead clever," the Doctor said. "Somethin' about thumbs make people more likely to... people." She wrapped her own hand around Bill's own thumb, then yawned. "I'm wiped," she said. "D'you mind going to sleep now?" She let go of Bill's hand, and she wriggled, pulling the covers over herself. 

"Nah," said Bill. She wasn't... tired, per se, but there were worse things to do than lie in the dark next to the Doctor and think her own thoughts. She'd come on this trip for some time to herself, and this wasn't _exactly_ time to herself, but it was... something. 

"I don't sleep that often," the Doctor said, turning the television off. She was still on her back, and when Bill looked over at her, she could see the shadows of the Doctor's eyelashes, cast across her cheekbones. 

"No? That's a pity, sleep is pretty great." Bill got out of bed, and she winced when her bare feet hit the cold floor. Her pajama pants were printed with little moose, and she would have been embarrassed about it, but the Doctor's boxers were printed with doughnuts. 

"Yeah, but there's always _so much_ to do," the Doctor said. She yawned widely, and Bill could almost hear her jaw cracking from it. "I wouldn't wanna miss it."

Bill turned the light off, and then she was climbing back into bed. The whole room smelled faintly like someone else's home, and then the Doctor was snuggling up to Bill, her head on Bill's chest. Her feet were pressed against Bill's, and Bill winced. "Your feet are _freezing_ ," she told the Doctor. She lifted an arm up, cautiously, to wrap around the Doctor, and the Doctor snuggled in, tucking her head under Bill's chin. 

"I've got a lower body temperature than you do," the Doctor told Bill, her tone serious. "Special Time Lord advantage."

"Ice lollies probably melt slower for you," Bill murmured. She hadn't been sleepy, but in the darkness, surrounded by warmth, her own heart loud in her ears, it seemed so easy to let the veil of sleep draw over her. 

"Butter does, in fact, melt in my mouth," the Doctor. "But it takes a little longer."

"Have you timed it, then?" Bill brought her arm up around, to rest on the Doctor's waist, her fingers circling over the soft skin where the two t-shirts rode up. 

"Obviously," the Doctor said. "'s'what made it science, and not just me and Amy eating butter."

Bill snorted. "That sounds disgusting," she told the Doctor. "How much butter are we talking about?"

"Like... them little pats you get when you're at a hotel," said the Doctor. "To go with the bread rolls." 

"And you what, put it in your mouth and timed how long it took to melt?" Bill yawned, and she gazed up at the shadows dancing over the ceiling. The porch light of the bed and breakfast was on, and a tree branch was dancing in the wind. 

"Exactly," said the Doctor. "In the spirit of science." She pressed a nervous, dry little kiss to Bill’s jaw, and Bill sighed, and let her eyes flutter closed. Just before she fell asleep, she fancied she heard the Doctor whisper something that might have been _I’m sorry_.


End file.
